Friday, November 4, 2011

Cyclists Blatantly Running a Red Light Win a Sad Little Monkey Award

Today's nominees

I was waiting at a red light to turn left along with five or six cars. Two cyclists, riding together, paused briefly at the front of the line, waited for a short break in the five lanes at rush hour, and turned left through a red light when there was a gap, in front of the waiting cars and the traffic coming from both directions. Congratulations guys, you are the latest nominees for the OSG Sad Little Monkey Award, and the first cyclists to receive this distinction.

A sad little monkey, washed upon a rocky shore by the cruel tides of fate. An award for rude lawbreakers.

If an automobile driver had done this, or a DART bus driver, I surely would have posted about it. Why should I not give equal consideration to blatantly rude and illegal actions by cyclists? This wasn't marginal, or questionable, it was blatant. I'm willing to accept that it was probably simply a thoughtless act, without much malice or feeling of entitlement. Something like this is probably not far from the truth:

Probable actual cyclist dialog

But that's not how the automobile drivers around me imagined it, I'm sure. In their seething, caffeine-fueled, pre-work stressed out, car-confined brains, they may have imagined it differently:

Car drivers imagining the smug taunts of the lycra-clad

Then, of course, there's my fantasy version of their dialog, one which would have rendered the Sad Little Monkey award unnecessary:

...and then they turned back when it was safe to do so...

In the OSG universe, realizing their error, they turned around immediately, and when it was safe to do so, rode back across the busy street, went to the back of the line waiting to turn left, and waited for the light like the rest of us. I'm not trying to be some sort of nitpicking legal eagle here. These are the motorists I ride with every morning, along with other cyclists and pedestrians from the neighborhood including kids headed to school, and I would prefer it if the drivers weren't pissed off at all cyclists. I do my best to work with these motorists, and it generally goes pretty well. But it doesn't take much to make them mad, or to make a bad impression, and these sad little monkey award winners sure aren't helping the rest of us.

my man!!! i stop, i signal, i show courtesy. why? because someday that car will do the same for one of my cyclist brothers or sisters and maybe just maybe that little momentary show of being on sort of the same page will buy someone their life. at the same time, there are times, late at night when no one - not one car or human is anywhere in sight, when i do the dash. the guilt washes away relatively quickly. steven

I do NOT approve of vigilante road behavior. Sad monkeys are not vigilante. Dealing with such cyclists via honking, pepper spray, mace, tasers, riding them down and tackling them, shooting them with bb, paint, or explosive bullet, or RPG are ALL inappropriate. I seem to use that "I" word a lot here! But thanks anyway. It makes me feel that I am not alone - all I have to do is move to Phoenix for a little company!

jt, thanks to you comment, I was singing Pass the Douchey Pon the Lefthand side on my commute.

steven, I'm with you on the late at night no one around situation, and also when the lights just won't trigger. But this particular situation was a busy morning, and this light will most definitely trigger with a bicycle in at most 1 minute at 34 seconds.

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Thriving on two wheels

I commute by bicycle in Phoenix, Arizona, a place suited for riding bicycles of all types, with weather, mountains, roads, canals, and paths to keep me forever spinning. My favorite bike tools are an open mind, anger control, curiosity, compassion, common ground, and the search for knowledge. With coffee.

Dedicated to the Lost and Bold

Arizona 3 foot law ARS §28-735. Overtaking bicycles; civil penalties A. When overtaking and passing a bicycle proceeding in the same direction, a person driving a motor vehicle shall exercise due care by leaving a safe distance between the motor vehicle and the bicycle of not less than three feet until the motor vehicle is safely past the overtaken bicycle. B. If a person violates this section and the violation results in a collision causing: 1. Serious physical injury as defined in section 13-105 to another person, the violater is subject to a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars. 2. Death to another person, the violater is subject to a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars. C. Subsection B of this section does not apply to a bicyclist who is injured in a vehicular traffic lane when a designated bicycle lane or path is present and passable